New Oscar fave would make for ‘most explicit Best Picture winner ever’

Chaos in this year’s Oscars race has slashed one film’s chances of winning Best Picture – as a racy new favourite takes its place.

Chaos in this year’s Oscars race has left one film’s chances of winning Best Picture appear dramatically reduced – as a new favourite takes its place.

The scandal surrounding Emilia Perez’s lead actress Karla Sofia Gascon and her past offensive tweets seems likely to harm the film’s chances at next month’s Oscars, despite it being up for a leading 13 nominations.

On the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, LA entertainment journalist and former editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter Matt Belloni spilled some insider insight about the film he thinks may have taken Emilia Perez’s place as Best Picture frontrunner.

“It’s sort of remarkable what’s going on with the Oscars this year. The number one nominated film – 13 nominations for Emilia Perez, a Netflix movie about a transgender woman drug lord who has an adventure in Mexico – has completely imploded. Over a Twitter scandal! The favourite for Best Picture has basically been taken off the map for most of the nominations,” Belloni said.

Emilia Perez’s Oscar hopes are fading … Picture: Shanna Besson/PAGE

… while Anora emerges as a new favourite. Picture: Drew Daniels

With Emilia Perez down, early indicators – including big wins at the Producers and Directors Guild Awards respectively – point to a possible Best Picture win for director Sean Baker’s Anora, which stars Mikey Madison as a young sex worker who finds herself swept up in a romance with a rich Russian heir.

“That would be a remarkable winner in its own right, because it starts with about 45 minutes of hardcore sex, with a bunch of nudity in it,” Belloni said.

“It would definitely be the most explicit movie to ever win best picture, by far.”

Here in Australia, the film is rated MA15+ for “strong frequent coarse language, sex scenes and nudity.”

Host Bill Simmons was less sure, and argued that he found it hard to imagine Anora amassing votes from older and more conservative members of the Academy: “I don’t think with people over 60, that first 45 [minutes] is going to work,” he insisted.

If it wins, the explicit sex worker drama would be the “most explicit Best Picture winner ever.”

Belloni said that Anora aside, he sees the Oscars Best Picture race now firming up as between five choices in the 10-film strong category: Anora, A Complete Unknown, Wicked,Conclave and The Brutalist.

But he noted that The Brutalist was another favourite to win just a few weeks ago, showing how quickly things can change in this Oscars race.

Members of the Academy can access an online portal to watch each of the nominated films at home – but he’d heard that many have struggled to make it to the end of the 215-minute film, which is screening in cinemas with an interval at the halfway mark.

“The Brutalist was the favourite a few weeks ago, but it’s just polarising. It’s three and a half hours and a lot of people don’t finish it, when they watch it on the portal,” he claimed.

The 97th Academy Awards are set to take place on Monday, March 3, airing locally on Seven.

Originally published as New Oscar fave would make for ‘most explicit Best Picture winner ever’